If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton

Okay, sitting rather than standing, but there are a lot

This quote has always resonated with me. Not because I often stand on giants shoulders, nor because I have any extra special super vision. It makes me smile, nod and think to myself, “yeah, that’s far-out, right-on and groovy” because I believe all Individuals, families, societies and humanity are only where we are today because of the ideas, discoveries, creations and learnings of those that came before.

It’s a philosophy. Not a technology
Information wants to be free. Imagine where we would be today if basic arithmetic was never shared? The phone I am struggling to tap this out on, processing all those vast calculations, could not exist. (on the shoulders of giants)

Naturally, I am using an Android phone to create this – which has at its core an Open Source operating system.

It’s about collaboration not elitism.
The printing press has often been sited as mankinds greatest invention…after bacon.

This is because it took ideas, information and knowledge and put it in the hands of every man.

Every man* was now able to feed their minds with this information – once the domain of the elite. Learn from it, discuss it and expand on it. Because of this mankind saw unprecedented growth. (Shoulders of giants)

Today, the internet see’s information distributed to a world-wide audience in an instant. Every man who thinks he has something to say can tap out a tweet, share “whats on their mind” or if they some something really important to say, or their ego leads them to believe they do; Every man can set up and run a website to share their most profound thoughts. They can publish these on blogs, fill them with key/buzz -words and phrases sit back and watch their stats. Zero hits on Monday, 2 Hits on Tuesday Back to Zero Hits on Wednesday. (Not that anything like that would ever happen with MY blog)

It is collaborative. Not singular.
Open source software takes ideas in the form of 0 and 1s and shares it with the world. It allows others to take these ideas and expand on them, change them, grow them and have them open for scrutiny, appraisal and critique.

Communities then build around these solutions. Communities with a vested interest in seeing the solution grow.

My home computing OS has been a flavour of linux for the past 12 years. Each of these blogs (except this one) has been created with libre office. WordPress whose services I use to host and publish this site through, itself runs in an opensource world.

It’s cost effective.
Most open source software is both free as free as in beer as it is free as in liberty.

The Final Word.
Openness and collaboration are key to building true human relationships. #nzlead recently discussed how recruitment and HR as a whole could benefit by an Open Source approach. You know the information  there must be good because the above link features tweets by me. 🙂

Transparency. A community of collaborators and contributers sharing, critiquing working towards #standards #nzlead

— Graeme White (@theGraemeWhite) April 30, 2015